The Late Birthday Present

"You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you!"

We sang at the top of our voices as we held onto each other to keep from falling off the bar.

"Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Ohhhhhh.

My shoes were long discarded somewhere and we were surrounded by empty shot glasses. Leon had a firm grip around my waist to stop me from falling off the bar and probably to keep his own balance too. We hadn't a clue what time it was and to be honest, we didn't care. I was having the most fun I'd had in a long time and it felt fantastic. As the song ended the barman shouted last orders and Leon stumbled down from the bar and offered me a hand. "M'lady?" He said as he bowed.

I drunkenly giggled as I gratefully took his hand and went to step onto a stool, completely missed the missed the stool and landed in a ungraceful heap in his arms… Not that I gave a damn by this point.

"Oops, sorry!" I slurred, I glanced up at Leon and his hair was dishevelled in a devilishly handsome way making it hard not to stare…Too much alcohol, yes definitely too much I told myself as I tried to straighten myself up. All of a sudden my stomach growled at me, I remembered I'd skipped the meal and hadn't eaten in hours, I had an idea.

"Wanna get some food before we head home? I could just demolish a bag of chips – I mean fries right about now, sorry force of habit. You can take the girl out of England but you can't take England out of the girl." I laughed to myself.

Leon simply smiled and told me there was a local McDonalds we could go to. As I wobbled around trying to find my shoes Leon called a taxi. I successfully found one but the other was nowhere to be seen.

"A regular Cinderella, huh?" Leon spoke from behind me.

I turned around and huffed, "It's gone, Leon! Someone stole my shoe! I flailed my arms around for dramatic effect. "Urgh, let's just go, I'll probably never wear them again anyway."

Leon escorted me to the sidewalk and opened the taxi door for me, he suddenly swopped down into yet another bow startling me.

"Your carriage awaits madam." He said in a very regal English accent.

I laughed and swatted him across the head with my hand ad I practically fell into the taxi. I shuffled over to allow Leon room to get in.

"I wonder if Chris and Jill enjoyed their evening." He slurred.

I suddenly leapt up and slapped my hands on either side of his face grabbed him hard. "OH MY GOD, LEON! I TOTALLY FORGOT TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THEM!"

I seized my bag from the taxi floor, along with an empty sweet wrapper which had stuck to the bottom. "Ewww…" I groaned.

I started frantically searching through my clutch bag until I found my phone, Leon casually removed his from his trouser pocket and instantaneously the back of the taxi became illuminated with our phones backlights.

"12 missed calls, 2 from Jill, 10 from Chris and 9 text messages… Oh shit, I think I'm in trouble." I slapped my hands over my face groaning.

"You think you're in trouble? I have 17 missed calls, all from Chris and 8 texts. You don't even want to know what he said…"

"Maybe we should skip the food and head straight back?" I suggested.

Leon looked like he was contemplating this before speaking. "Why should we? We've got nothing to hide and it's your birthday!"

"Mmm technically it's not any more, it's 3 in the morning, and we did say we were going straight home from the restaurant, they might be worried." I sincerely hoped I hadn't worried Chris and Jill too much.

"Oh well, in that case I should probably get you home… But it would be irresponsible of me to send you home hungry so, driver! McDonalds drive thru it is!" He yelled enthusiastically.

I shook my head and chuckled whilst putting my phone away. I'd be gone for hours anyway, what was one more?

"Thanks, man. Keep the change."

Leon turned back to face me and looked me up and down, what a sight I was; hair tattered, one shoe missing and I was surrounded by fries that I had failed to get into my mouth in my ravenous hunger. As I concentrated on not poking myself in the eye with a fry whilst attempting to reach my mouth, Leon spoke.

"I had a great night tonight, thanks. It was good to let loose for once."

I looked at Leon and he suddenly looked more sober, the next thing I knew I was being swooped up bridal style, losing even more of my fries in the process.

"Awww look what you made me do.2 I whined as he strode up the path to the house. I suddenly got a sense of de ja vu.

"This seems to be becoming a habit." He chuckled, his voice reverberating straight through my body.

"Hey! I could have managed on my own!" I retorted, speech slurring slightly. "One shoe or not!"

"Shhh! They'll hear us." Leon whispered.

We giggled like school kids as he placed me on my feet on the porch and put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"I had a great night too, thank you, Leon. It's been a long time since I had this much fun, it's been a good birthday considering all that has happened." I smiled up at him.

He smiled back at me for a brief second before the smile disappeared and an anxious look replaced it.

"What's up?" I asked concerned. Had I said something wrong?

"Nothing, it's just I remembered I didn't get you a birthday gift." He shrugged.

"Oh Leon, don't worry I never even thought about it." I rolled my eyes and waved my hand dismissively, unconsciously scattering more of my drastically thinning portion of fries.

"Damn it." I muttered. I was about to bend down to pick them up when I felt two soft but firm hands grasp either side of my face, then suddenly a pair of soft warm lips were placed gently against my own. I stood in shock for what felt like an eternity, staring into Leon's eyes as he gazed at me. He then slowly pulled his lips away from mine and I instantly craved them again. He stayed still and kept his eyes on me as if testing my reaction, never moving his hands from my face. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks and he must have felt it in his hands too. I cleared my throat.

"What was that for?" I whispered.

He looked away for a brief second before removing his hands from my face and shoving them into his pockets.

"Consider it a late birthday present." He shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

I was about to reply when suddenly the door practically flew off of its hinges and a very angry, red faced Chris stood in the doorway blocking the light. He was wearing a vest and boxers; which was unusual for him.

"And what time do you call this?" He bellowed.

Jill stepped out from behind him and placed a hand gently on his arm to pull him back. I noticed she was dressed in only a long shirt, which was also strange for her. Hang on, what was going on here?

"Chris, leave them alone. Come back to bed, we'll deal with it tomorrow." She whispered.

Woah! Holy macaroni! Could somebody rewind please? Did she just say what I think she said? Instantly the awkwardness between Leon and I evaporated as we grinned at each other like Cheshire cats, the plan had worked. Before the situation could become any worse I spoke.

"So I guess you two had a good evening?" My voice laced with a suggestive tone and I added a wink for good effect.

Chris looked shocked for a moment before looking between himself and Jill and realising what it looked like.

"We uhh…" Chris stammered, blushing profusely. Jill stayed uncharacteristically quiet and appeared to melt into the shadows behind Chris.

"No need to explain." Leon said smugly. "We understand perfectly." He tried to stifle a snigger but it came out as a snort and that set me off too. As we stood on the porch laughing to ourselves, Chris puffed his chest out.

"Alright, alright… You go home, Kennedy. Amy, you get yourself inside." He spoke in a voice that commanded authority.

As I hobbled my way inside, one leg being 4 inches shorter than the other, I glanced back at Leon.

"See you later, Leon. Thanks for tonight." I smiled at him, hoping he could see I wasn't too fazed about the kiss.

"Goodnight, Amy. Anytime." He smiled back.

I thought I saw a look in his eye I had never seen before, but I just put it down to being way too intoxicated. I walked inside, kicked my one shoe off and made my way to the kitchen. I heard some muffled voices then the door closed.

"Before you start," I said raising my hands surrendering, "we went for a few drinks to celebrate my birthday. I felt much better on the way home from the restaurant. Must have been a 1 hour bug thing…" I knew my pathetic excuse wouldn't wash with them but God loves a trier.

"We thought you were ill, when we couldn't get in contact with you we were really worried, we thought something had happened to you." Jill spoke in her usual soft tone.

"Yeah, we're sorry about that. We were kinda dancing on a bar around the time you called and sent those messages…" I spoke quickly.

"You were wha-" Chris was cut off by Jill.

"Well as long as you had a good night." She said smiling.

"Oh I did." I smiled goofily. "And I'm guessing you two did aswell, huh? I threw in another cheeky wink for good measure and popped one of my remaining fries into my mouth.

Chris and Jill looked at each other before both racing to get their words out. "We got back early." Chris started.

"When we thought something was wrong with you…" Jill butt in.

"Yeah, yeah." I said dismissively. "I'm just glad you two finally got your act together and got it on. A blind man could see there was chemistry between you two!"

The penny appeared to drop as a look of shock covered their embarrassed faces.

"You set us up?" Chris asked incredulously.

Jill started laughing whilst face palming and shaking her head. "I should have saw straight through it." She said.

"And Kennedy was in on it too?... Why that sneaky son of a –"

"Uhh Chris, it's fine. Look at it this way, they gave us the push that we needed." Jill spoke whilst sashaying her way towards Chris and putting her hands putting her arms around his neck. "Now we don't need to hide our feelings." She smiled at him.

Chris just grunted in agreement and wrapped his arms around her waist before leaning in to kiss her.

"Urghh, please! Get a room!" I shouted.

I dumped my rubbish in the trash and bolted… well stumbled out of the kitchen towards the stairs, tripping on my dress a few time for good measure. As I reached the top of the stairs, Chris shouted to me.

"Hey, Amy! This was your idea; you gotta suck it up now!" It was followed by laughter from the two of them.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to my bedroom, flopping down onto my bed.

"If only you knew what else happened tonight you wouldn't be looking so smug." I muttered to myself smiling before drifting off to sleep.